Two more incidents involving children with autism at city schools — including a previously unreported handcuffing of a young boy last June — are cause for concern, says an autism advocacy group.

Margaret Spoelstra, executive director of Autism Ontario, says local school boards may not have “a really good safety plan” on how they respond to students who have autism and behavioural problems.

At a fundraising meeting in Toronto this week, Spoelstra says members were wondering out loud: “What is going on in Ottawa?”

The latest incident to come to light is the handcuffing of an 11-year-old last June at Henry Munro middle school in Beacon Hill. The school is part of the public system.

Just last month, a nine-year-old boy with autism was handcuffed by a police liaison officer at St. Jerome Catholic School, part of the separate board, after school authorities couldn’t get him to calm down.

Though Spoelstra lauded Ottawa police for being among the first in Ontario to provide autism-awareness training to officers and for establishing a voluntary registry for people with the disorder, she says the handcuffing of children with autism strongly suggests to her that training isn’t being sustained.

“The age of the children is particularly concerning. Really, a nine-year-old and an 11-year-old? How are we getting into this spot?”

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a complex neurological condition that affects normal brain development and leaves most individuals with communication, social and behavioural problems. Behaviour can include tantrums, aggressiveness, self-injury and property destruction.

Spoelstra is also troubled with two assault charges against a 14-year-old following a December incident with his principal and vice-principal — which was reported last week by The Public Citizen — and a newly revealed charge of assault with a weapon that was briefly laid, then withdrawn, against a 15-year-old boy on Feb. 4. Police decided to charge him for jabbing a classmate in the neck area with a poppy pin, though the father says he was able to convince the investigating officer to have the charge withdrawn. The father says he explained to the officer his son has the behavioural level of a five-year-old kindergarten pupil.

Laying criminal charges has little effect on people with autism, Spoelstra says. It does not alter their behaviour because they do not think about social consequences.

Police, who would not comment about any of the specific incidents, say charges are weighed very carefully in consultation with the Crown, and the aim is to get offenders into youth mental health court, where additional resources can be made available for people with behavioural disorders.

Staff Sgt. Andrew Buchan says on top of the training already provided a few years ago, officers have online access to an hour-long video on autism, which identifies behavioural triggers and the appropriate action — often requiring split-second decisions. Buchan also says police consider handcuffs a “tool” used to subdue someone whose behaviour poses a danger to others or himself.

But, says Spoelstra: “We know (handcuffing) is traumatizing for the kids and their families. She says the experience of being handcuffed can haunt people with autism the rest of their lives.

Jessica Butler says her son, handcuffed in June at the age of 11, now fears and dislikes police, and is still embarrassed.

The boy, who has since turned 12, was placed in a “quiet room” in an attempt to calm him down after he became unruly in class — something that had become a regular occurrence last year and often resulted with his mother having to pick him up from school.

But after throwing a chair, the boy recalls having a confrontation with the vice-principal. He says he darted out of the room and spat at the vice-principal when he caught up to him. Police were beckoned, and when the two officers arrived, the boy says he ended up on the floor where his wrists were bound behind his back. He was taken to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, where his mother says he was still in handcuffs in the emergency room, in front of other children and their parents, when she arrived after the school notified her.

Butler says she was mortified and asked police why he was in handcuffs and why they were on so tight. She snapped a photo of the boy with her phone camera after asking the officer’s permission to do so. They were then taken to a room where the handcuffs were removed. Butler says she asked the officers to stand in the hall because her son was very agitated. A doctor eventually assessed the boy and determined he could go home.

A photo of a boy with autism, then 11, after he was handcuffed last June. This photograph was taken by the boy’s mother, with the permission of a police officer. She provided it to the Citizen.

Butler believes the incident with police could have been avoided had the school called her instead — as it often had prior to that incident.

Spoelstra says relying on a mother to come to pick up her child whenever he’s unruly also shows the safety plan is not working. In most cases, school authorities should be able to de-escalate a situation without parent intervention, which itself, she says, just adds to the anxiety of parents of children with autism.

The public and Catholic boards have similar systems in place to deal with students with behavioural problems, including those who have autism.

Olga Grigoriev, superintendent of learning support services for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, says the OCDSB’s Behaviour Management System is “a very proactive approach. It’s not a restraint type of approach. It’s a very hands-off approach.”

“We rely on tiered interventions and we do have students who have needs, sometimes over and above their autism,” says Grigoriev, who could not comment about the specific incident. “Where behavioural needs are concerned, there are sometimes very severe situations that result. Therefore, we rely on other community supports. Where there is a crisis occurring, we realize more help might be needed for that child.”

There are various resources at each school to help with problems, says Grigoriev, but there’s a need for therapy, there are numerous outside resources, including social workers, psychologists and speech-language pathologists. “Teachers do not do this work in isolation,” says Grigoriev.

About 1,000 of the 70,000 elementary and high school students at the public board have autism and those with behavioural problems have individual safety plans. Parents are consulted. The plans list what triggers various behaviours and how staff should respond at different stages. “Because every autistic child is different, it’s complex,” she says. “So are we perfect? I would say no because we are always evolving, always learning . . . and it does take time for us to figure out what is the best course of action for every child.”

She says parents are only called to the school if they’ve indicated they want to be notified so they can respond. “Sometimes (having a parent present) is calming to the child,” says Grigoriev, who disagrees with Spoelstra’s assertion that something is wrong with a safety plan if parents are frequently called to help. “It’s a protective factor if parents are there and parents prefer that we call them than having to go to other means.”

Police are only called if the child cannot be calmed. Grigoriev says “police have their own protocol at how they deal with these situations as we have ours. They have their own training and reasons for what they do.”

Following the incident, the boy was not allowed to return to school until the end of last September. But his mother says his school hours were reduced from three to one, of which a 20-minute period is for actual instruction. Butler wonders what her son is learning with 20 minutes of instruction a day — though she has been told he will be transferred to a full-time program at another school with more support and higher levels of intervention.

This Week's Flyers

Comments

Postmedia is pleased to bring you a new commenting experience. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Eleven items were on the agenda when Eugene Melnyk and John Ruddy met with Mayor Jim Watson and senior city staff in the mayor’s boardroom last August, including “evidence of partnership” and “plans for Kanata.